Electoral Registration

Lord Wills: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much money was or has been allocated within the revenue support grant for the purposes of electoral registration, apart from the one-off costs of introducing individual electoral registration, in each of the following years (1) 2009, (2) 2010, (3) 2011, (4) 2012, (5) 2013, (6) 2014, (7) 2015, and (8) 2016.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire: As was the case under the previous administration, electoral registration is one of the services covered by the Local Government Finance Settlement. The Local Government Finance Settlement comprises both the Revenue Support Grant and business rates. Electoral registration is funded through both funding streams which are not ring-fenced.

Government Departments: Administrative Costs and Salaries

Lord Morris of Aberavon: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the administrative costs, including salaries, of the private offices of each Minister in the Department for Education for the last year for which figures are available.

Lord Nash: The table below summarises the administrative costs of each Private Office, including the Secretary of State’s, Ministers’ and Private Office staff salaries for 2012-13. Data for Private Offices under the last Government for 2009-10 is included for comparison.
	Under this Government the overall annual administration costs of Private Offices has fallen by £464,648 since 2009-10. This represents a saving of more than 20%, even though the number of Ministers in the Department has increased from five to six.
	
		
			 Private Office 2009-10 (£) 2012-13 (£) 
			 Secretary of State for Education—Michael Gove MP (April 2012–March 2013) 790,915 732,838 
			 Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schoolsii—Lord Hill (April 2012–January 2013) Lord Nash (January 2013–March 2013) 365,214 315,138 
		
	
	
		
			 Minister of State for Children and Families—Sarah Teather MP (April 2012–September 2012) 333,975 109,248 
			 Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcareiii—Elizabeth Truss MP (September 2012–March 2013) N/A 134,599 
			 Minister of State for Schools—Nick Gibb MP (April 2012–September 2013) David Laws MP (September 2012–March 2013) 379,685 260,413 
			 Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families—Tim Loughton MP (April 2012–September 2012) Edward Timpson MP (September 2012–March 2013) 424,464 277,369 
			 Total 2,294,253 1,829,605 
		
	
	i
	The Minister for Skills and Enterprise’s administrative costs are largely met by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills; however the Department for Education does take some of the costs, which are included in the Secretary of State figures in the table.
	ii
	The expenditure includes salary costs for Lord Hill of Oareford up to 7 January 2013. Lord Nash does not receive a salary
	iii
	The Department’s accounting system does not cater for the separation of expenditure for the Private Office of the Minister of State for Children and Families and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Childcare directly. As a consequence, an apportionment of Private Office expenditure (excluding Ministerial staff costs) has been applied, based on the Cabinet reshuffle date of 4 September 2012, to allocate expenditure to the above Private Offices for 2012-13.

South Sudan

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they consider appropriate to encourage co-operation between the President and Vice-President of South Sudan, the United Nations and international aid donors.

Baroness Northover: We have called upon all parties to the conflict to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law. We have made clear that the targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure or UN premises is unacceptable. It is vital that there is safe and secure access to the agencies providing neutral and impartial humanitarian assistance.
	We are working closely with the US, the EU and other donors to urge co-operation between the Government of South Sudan, the UN and international donors to ensure that humanitarian agencies are able to provide assistance to those that need it most.
	We are also urging the parties to the conflict to implement immediately the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement they signed on 23 January and to begin an inclusive political process to address the problems that led to the conflict.